This week, most students in Boston are on vacation. But at the 28 schools playing host to what are called “acceleration academies,” struggling students and teachers have given up their February and April vacations to get ahead.
The “academy” idea turns 10 this year. Jeff Riley, the state’s new education commissioner, formulated the idea back when he was principal of the Edwards Middle School in Boston.
As it has matured, the “acceleration academy” idea has revealed two different forms of education reform that are, at least partly, in conflict. One sees teachers as workers who can be motivated or replaced, and one that sees them as facilitators of academic communities to be encouraged and set free. As Riley assumes control of state oversight of public schools, the academies bear closer attention.